The Quanta Podcast
Exploring the distant universe, the insides of cells, the abstractions of math, the complexity of information itself, and much more, The Quanta Podcast is a tour of the frontier between the known and the unknown. In each episode, Quanta Magazine Editor-in-Chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Quanta specifically covers fundamental research — driven by curiosity, discovery and the overwhelming desire to know why and how. Join us every Tuesday for a stimulating conversation about the biggest ideas and the tiniest details.
(If you've been a fan of the Quanta Science Podcast, it will continue here. You'll see those episodes marked as audio edition episodes every two weeks.)
- Update frequency
- every 11 days
- Average duration
- 19 minutes
- Episodes
- 286
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
Secret Link Uncovered Between Pure Math and Physics
An eminent mathematician reveals that his advances in the study of millennia-old mathematical questions owe to concepts derived from physics.
The post Secret Link Uncovered Between Pure Math and Phys…
00:19:33 |
Thu 31 May 2018
How Bacteria Help Regulate Blood Pressure
Kidneys sniff out signals from gut bacteria for cues to lower blood pressure after meals. Our understanding of how the symbiotic microbes affect health is becoming much more molecular.
The post How B…
00:08:50 |
Thu 10 May 2018
Choosy Eggs May Pick Sperm for Their Genes, Defying Mendel’s Law
The oldest law of genetics says that gametes combine randomly, but experiments hint that sometimes eggs select sperm actively for their genetic assets.
The post Choosy Eggs May Pick Sperm for Their G…
00:15:25 |
Thu 26 Apr 2018
A Zombie Gene Protects Elephants From Cancer
Elephants did not evolve to become huge animals until after they turned a bit of genetic junk into a unique defense against inevitable tumors.
The post A Zombie Gene Protects Elephants From Cancer fi…
00:10:26 |
Thu 12 Apr 2018
Best-Ever Algorithm Found for Huge Streams of Data
To efficiently analyze a firehose of data, scientists first have to break big numbers into bits.
The post Best-Ever Algorithm Found for Huge Streams of Data first appeared on Quanta Magazine
00:15:31 |
Thu 29 Mar 2018
Newfound Wormhole Allows Information to Escape Black Holes
Physicists theorize that a new “traversable” kind of wormhole could resolve a baffling paradox and rescue information that falls into black holes.
The post Newfound Wormhole Allows Information to Esc…
00:16:13 |
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Brainless Embryos Suggest Bioelectricity Guides Growth
Researchers are building a case that long before the nervous system works, the brain sends crucial bioelectric signals to guide the growth of embryonic tissues.
The post Brainless Embryos Suggest Bio…
00:20:48 |
Tue 13 Mar 2018
New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of Deep Learning
A new idea is helping to explain the puzzling success of today’s artificial-intelligence algorithms — and might also explain how human brains learn.
The post New Theory Cracks Open the Black Box of D…
00:15:58 |
Thu 01 Mar 2018
Clever Machines Learn How to Be Curious
Computer scientists are finding ways to code curiosity into intelligent machines.
The post Clever Machines Learn How to Be Curious first appeared on Quanta Magazine
00:19:25 |
Fri 16 Feb 2018
Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs
The mathematician Svitlana Mayboroda and collaborators have figured out how to predict the behavior of electrons — a mathematical discovery that could have immediate practical effects.
The post Mathe…
00:14:06 |
Thu 01 Feb 2018
Interspecies Hybrids Play a Vital Role in Evolution
Hybrids, once treated as biological misfits, play a vital role in the evolution of many animal species. Now conservationists are trying to reconcile that truth with policies.
The post Interspecies Hy…
00:17:54 |
Thu 18 Jan 2018
What Made the Moon? New Ideas Try to Rescue a Troubled Theory
Textbooks say that the moon was formed after a Mars-size mass smashed the young Earth. But new evidence has cast doubt on that story, leaving researchers to dream up new ways to get a giant rock into…
00:21:23 |
Fri 17 Nov 2017
In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium
John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is often impossible to reach efficiently.
The post In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium first…
00:15:33 |
Thu 12 Oct 2017
Pentagon Tiling Proof Solves Century-Old Math Problem
A French mathematician has completed the classification of all convex pentagons, and therefore all convex polygons, that tile the plane.
The post Pentagon Tiling Proof Solves Century-Old Math Problem…
00:10:44 |
Thu 21 Sep 2017
Can Microbes Encourage Altruism?
If gut bacteria can sway their hosts to be selfless, it could answer a riddle that goes back to Darwin.
The post Can Microbes Encourage Altruism? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
00:15:44 |
Thu 31 Aug 2017
Dark Matter Recipe Calls for One Part Superfluid
A different kind of dark matter could help to resolve an old celestial conundrum.
The post Dark Matter Recipe Calls for One Part Superfluid first appeared on Quanta Magazine
00:14:38 |
Fri 25 Aug 2017
A Puzzle of Clever Connections Nears a Happy End
The three young friends who devised the “happy ending” problem would become some of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century, but were never able to solve their own puzzle. Now it rece…
00:11:34 |
Thu 20 Jul 2017
The Thoughts of a Spiderweb
Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head.
The post The Thoughts of a Spiderweb first appe…
00:12:42 |
Thu 13 Jul 2017
How to Quantify (and Fight) Gerrymandering
Powerful new quantitative tools are now available to combat partisan bias in the drawing of voting districts.
The post How to Quantify (and Fight) Gerrymandering first appeared on Quanta Magazine
00:16:55 |
Thu 29 Jun 2017
A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was underwhelming.
The post A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost first appeared on Quanta Magazine
00:14:37 |
Thu 01 Jun 2017
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